The artwork titled “Hero and Flora Temple,” created by the artists Currier and Ives in 1856, is a significant piece from the Romanticism art movement. This genre painting belongs to the “Horse Racing” series and exemplifies the genre’s focus on everyday life experiences and significant cultural events of that era.
In the artwork, two horse-drawn sulkies are depicted racing with a vivid display of dynamic motion and intensity. The scene captures a moment of exhilarating competition between two harness racers. The driver on the left is riding a grey horse named Hero, while the driver on the right is on a brown horse named Flora Temple. The drivers are dressed in period racing attire, and the horses are shown in mid-stride, giving a sense of action and speed. The background includes a vast, slightly hazy rural landscape, which accentuates the main focus of the racing horses and their riders. The dust kicked up by the sulkies and the focused expressions of the drivers highlight the competitive spirit and tension of the race. The artwork effectively captures the essence of 19th-century harness racing, a popular pastime during that period.